Airflow Optimizer

Well, I took the Cerberus X plunge today. My beloved NCASE M1 just wasn't coping with what I wanted to do with it anymore. The 980ti blower card was fine with my 5GHZ OC, but as soon as I put the RTX 2080 in, the case got too hot to maintain the OC. Also to keep the GPU cool I was blowing hot air in my face, or pulling the side panel off. Plus the NCASE got LOUD. So my build will consist of transferring my current rig to the X, with a few minor changes.

In order to keep things quiet, I'm going to build with a vertical stack airflow. I've ordered an X62 to replace my X52, and have replaced my SilverStone SFX with a Corsair Platinum 600 Watt (quietest rated SFX). I'll be using the Noctua A12s as top exhaust (if they fit), and Noctua A14s as bottom intakes as a pull config for the X62. I'm going to do some thermal tests to see if adding a 92mm exhaust makes a difference.

Now my big issue is the high frequency capacitor whine, and hard drive spindle whine. To combat this I went with solid side panels, and ordered SilverStone 10mm acoustic foam. I also plan to replace the 6TB WD Black and Optane with a 4TB Micron SSD.

With a little luck, I can drop 3 to 6 decibels, stop my CPU/GPU from overheating while overclocked, and not get blasted in the face with hot air anymore.

Airflow Optimizer

Airflow Optimizer

I transferred my system from the NCASE to the Cerberus X tonight. I have to say I'm a bit disappointed with some aspects of the build quality, though the design is excellent. I ordered the top vent bracket but was disappointed to see one of the screw inserts had lost it's threaded insert on arrival. A second lost its insert during install. It ended up being very weak, and I couldn't mount top fans. The case needs more connection points for that bracket, and better screw inserts. I'm going to probably have to either cut or drill the screws out now.

The remainder of the case was good, though a description of where to use what screws would be helpful. I didn't have an issue, but I'm a hobbyist.

I really like the thick steel panels, but don't like how hard they are to get off the case. They do a good job of masking noise. I plan to add some 10mm dampening foam as well.

Paint was absolutely excellent. The case looks just gorgeous.

The results of the build were exactly what I wanted. I was able to get 5GHZ all core OC out of my 8086K without delidding, and my RTX 2080 is locked in at 2055mhz. I beat my previous 3DMARK record with ease thanks to the case's excellent cooling.

King of Cable Management

I transferred my system from the NCASE to the Cerberus X tonight. I have to say I'm a bit disappointed with some aspects of the build quality, though the design is excellent. I ordered the top vent bracket but was disappointed to see one of the screw inserts had lost it's threaded insert on arrival. A second lost its insert during install. It ended up being very weak, and I couldn't mount top fans. The case needs more connection points for that bracket, and better screw inserts. I'm going to probably have to either cut or drill the screws out now.

The remainder of the case was good, though a description of where to use what screws would be helpful. I didn't have an issue, but I'm a hobbyist.

I really like the thick steel panels, but don't like how hard they are to get off the case. They do a good job of masking noise. I plan to add some 10mm dampening foam as well.

Airflow Optimizer

Yes I should be mentioning that. I have contacted CS and they've been very helpful. I haven't had time to mention it because I've been too busy enjoying it. Went on a bit of a marathon game session.

I took pictures of the issue, sent it to them. They're sending me a new piece out. Very polite, and very eager to correct the issue.

On a different note, I put a layer of Silverstone 10mm sound foam on the interior panels. It made a notable difference by reducing some of the higher frequency noises. Not all, but enough to be worth the time and effort.

Airflow Optimizer

Guess I should update this.... I got the replacement bracket, and mounted two 120x15mm Noctuas at the top. This dropped my GPU by 10C and I'm only running the fans at 40%. I would have used thicker fans but the Strix Z370 ITX just doesn't have the clearance.

I also put a NZXT Kracken X62 in the bottom mount position. My 8086K can still cook it. The chip is perfectly capable of all core 5GHZ at 1.36V but it just gets too hot with AVX workloads. More and more games are hitting AVX hard now. I backed it down to an all core of 4.7 but allow 2 cores to hit 5.0. First world problems... I know. ^_~

I got rid of my 6TB HDD. I'm done with spinners. Swapped it for a 2TB Sabrent NVME SSD. Once of the best bargains right now at $200 to $250 depending on the sale, uses the Phison E12 chip, and hits read speeds of 3000MB a second. It's faster than my Samsung 950PRO NVME SSD.

HOWEVER: I am having issues with the AIO getting bubbles in it. It begins to sound like a fish tank after a while. I bought the SFX rear PSU kit, and I'm going to try mounting the X62 to the front of the case. It will probably be a tight fit. Anyone mount a 280mm to the front of the X? I didn't find much info googling it.